I was fortunate to attend the Thought Leaders Spring Showcase today. Hosted my Matt Church (thanks for your comment below, it help round out my thinking), a collection of 6 inspirational public speakers were featured at the Hoyts Cinemas at Fox Studios. I certainly was inspired and left pondering 6 of my very messy mind maps. My maps posed so many questions. From how much ‘madness’ is required for funky thinking, through to the Zen-ness of golf and it relationship to surfing and spending time thinking, or not.
Here’s some Nuggets I took with me:
1) Nils Vesk
An urban designer come yoga hippie, Nils’ client list almost mirrors mine. He blends Madness with Science, logic with illogic, left with right brain to encourage us to break the ‘habit traps’ we fall into. He reckons that if you use the same approach all the time, you’ll get the same results.. ring true with you?? Instead we should:
- Fight it - using every method we can, stupidity works well
- Challenge it - ask yourself ‘what if’, challenge your fundamentals
- Change it - generate ideas from everything you experience, not just your competitors
I certainly don’t do this enough, you know. For example, a business issue came up in the last weeks and I just went about it in the way I knew, same old, same old. In hindsight I could have got even more people involved and supported my business goals in the process. If only I remembered to ‘think’.
2) Steven Di Pietro
As an expert on customer service measurement, Steven helps organisations captivate customers & staff by helping them find true purpose.
- What’s ‘The Point’?
- Why do you and your organisation exist?
Get that right and money will come. Just look at Google. Their mission - ‘To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.’ Where’s the money in that?
I will certainly be putting a new vigour into helping organisations create a massive shift for their online customer service, to raise it up a level.
3) Anders Sorman-Nilsson
Anders states that our brains create the most productive outcomes in society, not how hard we work. ‘The quality of your thinking determines the quality your results.’ He reckons business is characterised by three types of thinking:
- Blinkered Thinking 1.0 - Cynicism
- Rah Rah Thinking 2.0 - Motivation
- Funky Thinking 3.0 - Inspiration
In this ‘Age of Ideas’ the only thing that allows us to cope with change in our lives and at work is to upgrade our thinking. Just like the software on our computers, as Ander’s says. Inspiration is the only way to keep our staff engaged at work. The thinking that came up with the existing processes in our organisations (Blinkered and Rah Rah Thinking) will never be able to overcome the faults and the processes have created, only inspiration will.
In this merit-based society we must learn, unlearn and relearn the paradigms by which we live our lives and we must be inspired [and be driven] to achieve this.
This rings true for me, to survive in this dog-eat-dog IT/business world we have to get all parties in an organisation to work together toward a common outcome, otherwise we’ll end up with more systems that no-one uses. Inspiration is certainly one way to get us there, closely followed by communication of course.
4) Ron (Rowdy) McLean
Rowdy told us to ‘Get off our Arses’ and create awesome moments in our lives. Too many of are average ‘if only’ people. He espouses 4 steps:
- Ambition - desire, dream, purpose, pursue, plan
- Attitude - I can, I will, I am
- Awareness - what’s out there
- Action.
And only reward yourself and other for getting things done. A false sense of achievement is a waste of time. Also, if you or someone else has been mediocre, don’t give out ‘free’ recognition because that’s what the management texts teach you.
Importantly, from my perspective, what really makes an experience in your life awesome is when you have the insight to realise it and then learn from it over and over again. Don’t forget, these experiences can be positive and negative, I certainly learnt a lot about myself during recent work transition.
5) Grant Lewers
Grant sold his IT company and discovered golf. Put simply, he described how he learnt to have fun playing golf and discovered himself in the process. Instead of focussing on the minutiae of hitting the ball he focussed on the target you must think about what are you hitting the ball at and who cares what others think! Now he uses golf as a way to teach and inspire people in business!
I liken this to my experience of surfing. I have my best days when I live in the moment, don’t worry about what other people in the water think and look along the wave to where I am going, instead of thinking about how to get there, there’s no time for that!
6) Scott Stein
The Pathfinder. Just as I spoke about Daily Hassles and their contribution to stress in society, Scott tells us to take time to connect. We need to give ourselves the time out to be with family and friends and to think. Oh, and then make sure that we continue to allow ourselves the TIME.
I took a long time out earlier this year to think about life and my new business and I have to say it was the most creative time of my life. No uni assignments to do, no work moneys on my back, just time to plan, to think. Now I maintain that thinking time through blogging something that’s hard to do without.
All in all a fantastic experience this morning. I took away these main themes:
- Be awesome
- Focus on the heart of what you are trying to achieve
- Make time for yourself, family and thinking
- Think funky, wacky and madly - be inspirational
- Thinking is the number one, most important, currency in this changing world
- Sometimes, don’t think at all